Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Who is Holding this Handbasket?

Sometimes I wonder how long the entire nation--no, our entire world--can be held underwater, all waiting for that moment when we can finally gasp for breath again.

I know I'm inherently a worrier, inherently one who assumes the worst, one inherently prone to depression (the clinical kind, not the financial kind).

But this time, it is not just me.

The economy is collapsing in ways that could be tremendously more relevant than the hit our 401ks may have just taken. (For more information about what I'm referring to, check out Sharon Astyk's amazing new book, Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front.Review coming soon.)

The frustration and anger that the American people are experiencing is making their partisan politics be voiced in derision and hatred, and it is starting to seem really dangerous. I want so much to believe that this kind of talk is just people's anxieties speaking--and that it will go nowhere else. But honestly--I don't have that faith.

It is this kind of talk about hating other people, about killing other people because of their politics, that can lead to Nazism and the like.

And I don't know what to do other than ...

...deal with the real-life SPEWING OF SEWAGE from our basement drain....

Now here's that kind of immediate tangible crisis that I can deal with in my life, if I absolutely must be tested. Let's stick to that. Do you hear me?!

4 comments:

I've been worrying for awhile, but the shouts of "TERRORIST" at That Rally yesterday have really terrified me. Not only do people not learn from history, they don't even see themselves as part of history. Very, very scary.

Every once in a while, a voice of reason comes out small and clear on the radio saying things like, "don't panic", "things will settle down" and that gives me the strength to keep on going about my normal day in my normal life. I can't live with daily worry and fear. I believe it will settle down and things will never be the same again but that's not necessarily a bad thing. We'll have a new administration in our government and that gives me hope. "and hope is the thing with wings"....